THIS PRODUCT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE RECORDING - YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DOWNLOAD.
You walk into a beautiful place, you lift the camera, and there is so much going on that you do not know where to point it. One of our community put it perfectly on the night: where the heck do I start, and what do I point my camera at.
Eugene Theron calls that chaos, and this evening is about what to do with it. Not by simplifying the view, but by distilling it. Taking a slice of what is in front of you, assigning some order to it, and leaving the rest out.
The first half is why it works. The second half is how he does it, and it is practical all the way through.
What you will take from it
Slowing down, and what that actually means. Building what he calls a visual repository of a place. He returned to one patch of moor three or four times before he made a picture he was happy with, and he shows you the misses as well as the keeper.
The lens choice, with the numbers. Over 90% of his intimate work is shot beyond 70mm. He explains why, what a long lens does to a few centimetres of ground, and when a 24mm is still the right answer.
Focus stacking, demonstrated end to end. Why you run out of depth of field so fast up close, how to find your first focus point, and the software doing the work on screen. He uses Helicon. Photoshop does the same job.
Aperture for separation. The bluebell he wanted sharp with the wild garlic behind it soft but not blank, and how he used the background rather than erasing it.
The detail paradox. His own idea, and the part people wrote down. Too much detail can kill a picture. What your eye reads as shape becomes grain and imperfection the moment you zoom in.
Why a grey day is good news. Fog filters out the chaos for you. Most intimate images are made in dull light, and he makes the case with the pictures to back it.
A taste of what is in it
A cereal box cut into aspect ratio windows, which he carries in the field. A camera cover off Amazon that his friend calls the camera condom. A night sleeping in the back of the van so he could be out at minus four, which produced an image called Monsters in the Forest. Mud cracks on Anglesey, lichens on Torridonian sandstone, an orchid filmed from an inch off the ground, and two pine trees in falling snow that look like they are dancing.
There is also Eliot Porter, who coined the phrase intimate landscapes in the first place, and who photographed a canyon in minute detail to try to stop it being flooded for a dam. Porter’s line, which Eugene reads out, is that you can tell a large story with a tiny subject.
And the analogy he finishes on: you could visit a place a thousand times and come away with the same wide-angle photograph each time, or you could look closer and come away with a thousand different ones.
What our community said on the night
Sarah: “You are a great speaker Eugene. Your presentation is logical and well thought out and easy to follow and absorb.”
Janet: “Fantastic presentation, thanks Eugene, I will now slow down!”
Debbie: “Superb presentation, full of ideas.”
Linda: “Excellent, inspiring presentation. I love the details!”
Lorraine: “I was especially interested in the difference that time of day and angle of light makes on these small scenes. Love the raking light, but also love the soft diffused light and fog. So much fun!”
Moyra: “Thank you for such an interesting presentation and lovely images.”
Questions, answered on the night. Whether he uses a tripod for small scenes, and why the answer is both. How much he plans before he goes anywhere, which is almost nothing. And whether grand vistas outsell small scenes as prints, which got an honest and surprising answer about why people buy pictures at all.
Who it is for. Anyone who photographs outdoors and comes home from good places with nothing, because the light did not do what it was supposed to. You need no particular kit. Small scenes are available in a wood ten minutes from your house, on an ordinary grey afternoon.
If you enjoyed Whispers in the Scream, Eugene’s first talk for us, this is the companion piece. That one was about why you photograph and where your eye came from. This one is about what you point it at and how. They stand on their own and you can watch them in either order.
Why we love this one. I met Eugene in person in Birmingham, which is rare for me, and his passion for this subject came across within minutes. He is generous with the practical detail, he has opinions and shares them, and he is clear throughout that he is not telling you how to see. His own line about his workshops says it best: it is not about teaching someone to see the way he does, it is about helping them see the way they can.
About Eugene. Eugene Theron is a landscape, nature and wildlife photographer, originally from Cape Town and living in north Wales. He studied earth sciences at Bangor and spent ten years in the energy industry before turning to photography full time, and the geology has never left his pictures. He runs small group workshops, one to ones and mentoring sessions alongside his own work.
Streaming only, no downloads.
